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Book Review: You Belong Here by Megan Miranda
Megan Miranda is the queen of creating a suspenseful, atmospheric setting, and she succeeds once again in her latest thriller, You Belong Here. As the mother of two children in college, one of whom is attending a university in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, I knew I wanted to check out Miranda’s latest when I learned she was inspired to write it while visiting colleges with her daughter a few years ago. Synopsis: Beckett Bowery never thought she’d return to Wyatt Valley, a picturesque college town in the Virginia mountains steeped in tradition. Her roots there were strong: Beckett’s parents taught at the college, and she never even imagined studying anywhere…
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The Murder of Sandra Coulthard
On July 9, 1988, 30-year-old High Point, North Carolina resident Sandra Coulthard passed away at Duke University Medical Center. She’d been sick for about six months with vomiting, diarrhea, vomiting, and numbness of her feet and fingers. Doctors had diagnosed her with Guillain-Barre syndrome and had been treating her for it, but her symptoms never improved. Guillain-Barre syndrome is a rare neurological disorder that causes a person’s immune system to attack their nervous system. It often begins suddenly and as symptoms increase, can cause weakness and paralysis. While there is no cure for Guillain-Barre, treatments such as plasma exchange and intravenous immunoglobulin therapy can be administered for relief of symptoms. Sandy, a married…
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Book Review: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
Several months ago, I was browsing the shelves of Barnes & Noble when I noticed the book Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix on an end cap. The illustration with the lava lamp instantly caught my eye, and having read The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires several years ago, I knew it would fall into the horror category. I immediately opened my Libby app and requested the book, noting that I would be waiting a few months before it came available. Synopsis: They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are…
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Updates on the Writing Life
I don’t want to discuss how this is probably the last summer we’ll have both of our young adults at home (they are entering their sophomore and senior years of college). Our time with them is winding down, and while I’m sad, I’m also grateful for their desire to live out in the world on their own and reach for their personal and professional goals while in college. I can’t wait to hear about what adventures lie ahead for them in the coming school year! I’m continuing to write, podcast, read books, exercise, immerse myself in foreign language, spend time with my husband, and anything else I can think to do to keep…
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Book Review: Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
I’ll admit I was “influenced” by Reese Witherspoon’s official book club to put Clare Leslie Hall’s book Broken Country on my TBR list. I didn’t know much about it other than it was a mystery, but I requested it on my Libby app anyway. I knew it would take a few months to become available, and that was fine with me because I wasn’t lacking for anything to read when I requested it. But gradually, I noticed many of my friends on Goodreads completing the book and rating it favorably. To be transparent, I’ve read books praised by Reese’s list before that didn’t blow me away, so I added Broken Country with a…
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Create Vivid Settings In Your Writing This Summer
I often struggle to find my writing groove in the summer. This past year, I officially became an “empty nester” with two kids away at college from August through May. Their absence has given me more time to write. When the kids were younger, I had a hard time balancing my summer schedule with pool time, enrichment activities, and work. I’ve been freelancing or working remote for most of my career, so this is nothing new. But among the juggling, I embrace the opportunities for new ideas I always find during my summer breaks and travels. Last summer, we rented a home in the Boone/Blowing Rock area of North Carolina to help my…
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The Disappearance of Tyler Doyle from South Carolina
On January 26 of 2023, 22-year-old South Carolina resident Tyler Doyle went duck hunting off the coast of North Myrtle Beach with a friend in a 16-foot jon boat and has been missing ever since. It was a rough day on the water and there was a small craft advisory out that afternoon. He dropped his friend off at the north jetty on the Intracoastal Waterway and traveled further out in the boat to put out some duck decoys, staying in contact by phone. The friend lost sight of Doyle as he went around the south jetty. Not long after, Doyle called the friend to say the boat was having mechanical issues and…
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Celebrating Five Years of Podcasting!
When I started my true crime podcast Missing in the Carolinas five years ago, I thought I would be focusing solely on missing persons cases in North and South Carolina. My creative muse had other ideas. Little did my muse know that scanning old newspaper archives would lead me to intriguing crimes from the past (many with no digital footprints) and inspire me to broaden the context of my storytelling. I’m not going to lie–it’s been a labor of love. I don’t have a team, other than a few family members (you know who you are!) and I don’t make a profit off the podcast. I believe that I could make money off…
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Who Murdered Wesley and Bonnie Mahaffey in Asheville, N.C.?
In 1986, a free vacation getaway turned into a nightmare for an Ohio couple visiting Asheville, North Carolina. Wesley and Bonnie Mahaffey, ages 33 and 29, respectively, had traveled to the area from Hanover Township, Ohio, after winning a three-day trip to Asheville through Wesley’s job. The couple had been staying at a nearby hotel, the Great Smokies Hilton, and a member of the maid service saw them come out of their room as they left for a day of sightseeing on May 18, 1986. Their bodies were found early the next morning by a group of teenage boys. They had both been shot multiple times with a .38-caliber handgun. Buzzard Rock is…
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Book Review: Trespassers and Other Stories by Áine Greaney
Hello again, fellow readers! On April 5, I shared the details about author Áine Greaney’s new short story collection, Trespassers and Other Stories, and wrote about a time and place where I personally struggled to fit into a new environment. Today I’m back to share my thoughts after reading the book in support of her participation in WOW’s Blog Tours. Book Summary From coastal Massachusetts to rural Ireland, the characters in Trespassers struggle to reconcile past and present, place and displacement, loss and hope. A woman travels from her Massachusetts home to her native Irish village to care for her estranged and sick father. Back in her childhood home, she comes face-to-face with…